


Rock Lee and the Fierce Battle of Dreams

by JeanneRiddle



Category: Naruto
Genre: Excluding tags for the purpose of avoiding story spoilers, F/M, More characters and ships to come, Original Character - Freeform, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-01-24 09:23:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21335941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeanneRiddle/pseuds/JeanneRiddle
Summary: Rock Lee is determined to one day become Hokage, using only Taijutsu. On his extraordinary journey on the road to becoming a splendid ninja, he will fight for his dream, make new friends, learn about love, and delve inside himself to discover power he never knew he had!
Relationships: Rock Lee/Yuncho (OC), Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Kudos: 3





	1. The Genin Exam

Being the only person in the Village Hidden in the Leaves that could not perform Ninjutsu or Genjutsu was a difficult existence. While not everyone in the village had chosen to become a Shinobi, Rock Lee was the only person he knew of that could not do anything beyond the limits of what physical chakra could do. 

He was what one might call an outcast, and he had been for as long as he could remember. All of the adults avoided him if it was possible and children his age followed their example. 

More than once, Rock had imagined what his parents would be like if he had any. Would they live ashamed of him? Would they love and stand up for him? Surely his life would be very different with parents. 

He didn’t allow himself to dwell on it any further, ignoring the pain that came with crawling out of bed with muscles sore from training he’d done the day before. He must try harder if he was going to become a ninja. 

If he did not become a ninja, he could not become Hokage. That was his dream. If he became Hokage, he would be able to prove to everyone that anyone could become Hokage, no matter if they were deemed defective or not. 

It was the weekend and come Friday, it would be the fourth time he had taken the Genin Exam. The days leading up to this exam had been hard. His peers had been mocking him more than usual. 

Incompetent at Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. And pathetic at Taijutsu. Those words always cut deep. It was a wound, not only to his pride but his heart and dreams as well. Those words made it harder to get out of bed than sore muscles ever could. 

Perhaps he was a glutton for punishment. This had been going on for four years now. And every hurtful word, every miserable tear, when they faded even a little, Rock Lee would return to the Academy with a determined look on his face, absorbing all of the information his teachers poured over their students even if it was something he couldn’t ever do himself. 

In hypotheticals, he was an expert. In execution… maybe not, but he would continue to try, he was sure of it, well into the day he became an old man and surely then if he had not passed the test by then, they would have to make him a genin on sheer willpower alone, right? 

The pressure this year was more potent than the years previous. This was the year that all of his peers that he had started with would be taking the exam as well. Before he had always been able to chalk up his inability to pass the Genin Exam as him taking it too early, eager to advance, to prove his worth and then become Hokage, but this would be the first year that would put him behind children his own age if he failed. 

Determined steps led him to the small bathroom of his lonely apartment, to the mirror where there stood a tired but determined reflection trying its best to be desperately optimistic. Stubby fingers reached forward for the comb resting on the sink and with the same gung ho spirit that he approached every aspect of his life, he set to work and combing out the tangles from a poor night’s sleep out of his long, black hair. 

He was tired… he could tell by the small bags that had formed under his eyes. But why he had slept so poorly, he couldn’t quite place. It had to have something to do with a dream he had but couldn’t remember come morning. He always slept like this when he was stressed. He closed his eyes, trying to remember the dream. All he could see was red and all he could feel was an unsettling chill down his spine. 

His fingers set to work braiding the long, sleek, black tresses on instinct. He didn’t exactly enjoy having long hair, or the hard work that came from keeping his hair long, but he couldn’t cut it, not until he passed the Genin Exam. That had been the promise he had made himself four years ago when he had first failed the exam. He would continue to grow his hair until the day he became a Shinobi and when he got that headband with a symbol of a leaf proudly splayed in its center, he would cut his hair, lay it out in front of him, and see the fruits of his hard work. His hair would be the measuring stick of his next achievement and a reminder of what he had accomplished, how long it took, and every ounce of determination that he had poured into these last four years. 

“Alright, Lee, you can do it! You will train even harder today and on Friday, you will finally become a Shinobi!” He told his reflection, a fire in his eyes. 

Lee. That was what he called himself. He used to love his first name, but those days were distant memories. The first time someone had called him “Rock Bottom,” meaning it as a clever insult to his grades among the rest of the students, he had grown a distaste for it. Now he was Lee and he would see his dreams realized. 

He took an apple from the nearly empty fruit bowl on his table, took a bite, and made his way down to the village streets below. As he snacked on his healthy breakfast, he set his attention on the people around him. 

As usual, they were giving him plenty of space, as if touching him would hurt them. Perhaps it was the restless night and the nightmare he couldn’t conjure, but this constantly enforced distance between him and every other citizen of the Leaf made him feel more lonely than usual. 

That wasn’t the only problem he was facing today… he was nearly out of food again… He couldn’t train if he didn’t have the energy, and he didn’t have any money to buy more. One more apple sat at home in the bowl waiting for him and an apple a day was not enough to feed a growing thirteen-year-old boy who was constantly exerting his energy trying to improve his Taijutsu. 

He would have to figure out something, but that could wait until after he got some training in. Perhaps, he could try to convince one of the merchants to let him sweep their floors or one of the food vendors to let him wash their dishes in exchange for food or money. He knew the answer would probably be ‘no’ and he would probably spend the rest of the week digging through the trash in hopes of finding something safe to eat. It had happened before and would probably happen again, but he couldn’t allow himself to become so disheartened before the Genin Exam, that was the path to failure and he could not afford to walk it. 

Soon he was standing at the Academy training grounds by himself as he put his fingers into a hand-sign he knew all too well. 

“Clone Jutsu!” He shouted to himself, trying to force his chakra to manifest something, anything. If he could get just one clone to appear, even if it was shriveled and weak, then perhaps he could get a high enough score on the exam to become a Shinobi. 

Nothing.

“Clone Jutsu!!” He shouted again. He didn’t understand it. He was sure he could feel the chakra stirring inside him; like always it never amounted to anything. 

Nothing again. 

Minutes went by, hours passed. Perhaps he should try another Jutsu. 

“Transformation Jutsu!” He cried, hands following the movements he knew by heart. 

The birds were chirping, and someone who lived near the edge of the academy campus was barbecuing, he could smell it on the wind. 

Hunger and disappointment were getting the best of him and tears started to stream down his cheeks. Why couldn’t he just transform? Why did Ninjutsu have to be so unattainable for him?

His shoulders were shaking as he tried to contain his sobs, hands still in their last position. 

“Hey, kid.” a deep voice said behind him and his eyes widened. No, he hadn’t been crying, he wanted to say, but he was so surprised to be addressed that he looked over his shoulder to see if maybe there was another kid on the training grounds that the man had been talking to. 

Behind him, a few feet away was a tall man with bushy eyebrows, wearing all green except for some bright orange leg warmers, standing with his hands on his hips and a big grin on his face. 

“Huh?” Lee asked, bewildered. He could only stare in disbelief as the man in front of him smiled even wider. 

“The glory of youth is in its unbridled passion!” The man said sagely. Lee wasn’t entirely sure what exactly that was supposed to mean, honestly. He was even more confused by the strange glint in the man’s eye. It was an emotion he had seen before, he was sure of it, but never directed at him, and he couldn’t be sure if he had imagined it or if he had mistaken it for the man’s seemingly overwhelming confidence. 

Suddenly there was a fist in front of Lee’s face - no, not a fist exactly - his thumb was sticking up.

“You just keep chipping away at it, son, and you’ll make a splendid Shinobi someday!” The strange man said with a chuckle. 

It wasn’t that the man was mocking him, he thought. Adults had better things to do than go out of their way to pick on some thirteen-year-old boy that couldn’t seem to summon any sort of Jutsu no matter how hard he tried. Lee blinked in fascination, moving to completely face the man. Perhaps he was a foreigner, unaware of his defects. But a closer look at the man’s outfit demolished that hypothesis. The man had a Leaf Village headband wrapped around his waist, so he had to have known who he was. 

_ Who is he? _Rock wondered, staring at this man. It was hard to keep the confusion off of his face, who could blame him? This had to be the first adult to have ever approached him without saying something mean, and the first man to encourage him. 

_ He is so confident! _ He couldn’t help but be in awe. He wished he had that sort of confidence… but he didn’t. He could talk big. He could tell everyone in his class that he was going to be Hokage one day whether he had Ninjutsu or not, but this confidence that the man before him had was exactly what he needed most to be able to take the steps on that path, the Path of a Splendid Shinobi. 

It was the kind of confidence that seemed to seep out of every one of the man’s pores. It was in his clothes, in the way he walked and talked, in the way he stood. He must be a great Shinobi to be so confident. He craved that confidence more than the smell of barbecued pork in the breeze. 

Suddenly the man in front of him was moving again, turning on his heel to walk away, but before he truly took the first step to leave Lee alone with his failing jutsus again, he glanced over his shoulder. 

“Grab hold of life by both horns, that’s what youth is for!” The man said, starting to walk away. Hand up in the air in an amalgamation of a salute and perhaps a wave farewell. “Goodbye!” The man let out a hearty, joyous laugh. 

Lee stood staring at the man’s retreating figure with warm cheeks and a sense that his entire world may have just been turned upside down by that interaction.

What a peculiar conversation! Could it really be called a conversation when Lee hadn’t said a word? And beyond that, it was the first time anyone had ever said only encouraging things to him. 

A small smile started to rip through his face, growing wider and wider. Even if the man was mocking him, he didn’t care. It felt so good to have heard those words, even if there wasn’t an ounce of honesty in them. 

The man vanished from sight and Lee resumed his fruitless Ninjutsu training until his chakra could take no more strain. 

The sun was setting and Lee found himself surprised for the second time today; had he really spent the whole day trying to transform or make clones? He didn’t have anything to show for his efforts… that wasn’t exactly true. He had that strange man who had cheered him on. Now he had an example of what confidence it would take to become such an extraordinary ninja. It was a strut that all Shinobi seemed to have, one that he wanted for himself. He wanted to be able to walk with his shoulders back, his chin high, and a spring in his step in the same way that man had. 

Maybe not today though, he thought as he walked back to his apartment with the hateful gazes of Leaf Villagers on his back, shoulders hunched and head down. 

Relief flooded through him as he leaned back against the now-closed door of his apartment. Sanctuary from the disapproving stares and glares he should be used to by now. He had endured those dirty looks for as long as he could remember, he should be growing numb to it, the same way his muscles grew numb to the pain of training after he started his day, but instead, it only seemed to hurt more and more. He hated it. He hated them for hating him. And he hated hating them. It wasn’t in his nature to hate, so why? Why did he?

He opened his eyes, pressing the thoughts and hurt feelings down and began to get ready for bed, but there was something incredibly different about his apartment. That something being that his table, which when he left it this morning had only a bowl with one apple in it, now had two baskets of food on it and the bowl was refilled with apples, oranges and a large assortment of other fruit. He stared in disbelief, hand mindlessly reaching for the opposite arm and pinching himself. 

So it wasn’t a dream. His thick brows knit together. Perhaps he had walked into the wrong apartment? He stared around at the empty walls. He really should get a poster or something so he could be able to discern if this was his apartment or not. As it was he had no nicknacks, nothing truly distinguishable, and save a bed complete with sheets, a blanket, a pillow, a table that had a fruit bowl, and when he was lucky, fruit in it, one chair at the table, a fridge, a stove, a counter, a toilet, a shower, a sink, a mirror, a bar of soap, and his comb, he didn’t really have anything else. 

He walked into the bathroom and found his comb exactly where he had left it. So that must mean that this was his apartment and he hadn’t walked into the wrong one, but just to be sure he approached the baskets and found a note attached to each one. 

_ Lee, please don’t eat all the food at once. It’s meant to last until after your exam. _

At the bottom, where he expected to find a signature, he found four neatly drawn leaf symbols. He had no idea who could’ve left it for him, but he was grateful for the food anyways. He grabbed a pear from the bowl, took a bite, and reached for the second note. 

_ Hey, kid, you’re going to need food if you plan on keeping up your strength to grab life by both horns! There’s more in the fridge! I hope you like curry. _

Lee read the note and it was easy to tell it had been written by that strange man he had met earlier, but in case there was any doubt, the man had taken his thumb, dipped it into the ink, and smeared a thick black line along the bottom of the paper. It reminded him of the man’s eyebrows as well as his own. 

In some ways, it irked him that the man had not left his name in place of this unique signature that summoned forth reminders of the two large eyebrows that sat on that confident forehead. He wanted so badly to know the name of the ninja that had encouraged and fed him today. 

His mind was drawn back to one word in particular on the note that the bushy-browed ninja had left. _ Curry. _ His stomach growled its own form of encouragement and he padded eagerly to the fridge and opened it. 

He had expected to find only a few tubs of food. But the whole fridge was stocked full with food packed neatly in containers, a few dozen eggs, and a gallon of milk. 

Grateful tears fell down Lee’s cheeks. That man… he was so nice to do this for him. And his other benefactor too. He grabbed a tub of food marked curry and rice and sat down at the table, hands slamming together. 

“Thank you for the meal!” He shouted to the empty room. It wasn’t enough. He’d have to thank the confident ninja in person as well. Perhaps he could convince him to tell him who left the other note so he could thank them as well. 

The curry was delicious. He couldn’t remember the last time he had curry, but it was such a treat, being his favorite food. 

After the tub the food came in was completely cleaned of food, Lee finished the pear he had started and headed to the bathroom to stare at his reflection. 

That man really was cool, the way he held himself. He put his shoulders back, chin up and did his own rendition of the thumb gesture that the man had given him. 

To himself, he looked a little ridiculous, nothing like that man he had met today. He couldn’t seem to be comfortable enough in his own skin to emulate the raw confidence he had witnessed earlier today. 

His thoughts took a more depressing turn. If he could not demonstrate the same level of confidence, would he even be allowed to call himself a Shinobi if he could pass the Genin Exam?

He shook away that horrible thought and looked into the eyes of his reflection. 

“Lee, tomorrow you will train even harder in your Taijutsu that way, even if you cannot do Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, you can still become a Genin, and then one day you will become Hokage!” He told himself. His reflection did not respond, so he set to work unbraiding his hair for bed. 

Despite being exhausted, he did not sleep well again. He had nightmares, but not the same as before. These nightmares were scary, but not in the same way. 

His entire class had passed the Genin Exam except for him. So his teacher brought in the Fourth Hokage to tell him that there was no point in wasting time and resources on a kid that could never learn how to be a ninja. To add further salt to the wound this dream had left on his heart, Lord Fourth had declared that he was not allowed to attend the Academy anymore. 

He woke up grateful that it was all just a nightmare, that hadn’t really happened. Still, there was that nagging feeling in the back of his mind. What if this had not been a dream, more like a premonition? He shuddered at the thought and forced himself to start on his daily routine. 

His mirror told him that he had gotten even less sleep than the night before in the way of bigger tangles and darker circles around his eyes. He looked a little like a panda with a bad hair day. 

It took longer to comb out all the tangles without hurting his sensitive scalp today, but finally, he had his hair tied back in its usual, neat braid. He had some fried eggs for the first time in a very long time and made his way to the training ground to work on his training. 

Rock preferred to train on his own. There were no kids to mock him or distract him from whatever task he was focusing on. It was easier to get absorbed in his work and hopefully when he could focus like that, he would improve. 

Monday had come all too soon and Lee was making his way to class. The hall was quiet, but he knew he wasn’t late. Actually, it was likely that he was early. 

Being early was good for him, he could sit down at his desk and pour himself into his study of Jutsu, copying the sketches for hand movements and maybe he’d finally discover was he was doing wrong. 

He pushed the door open, about to step into the empty classroom, only it wasn’t empty. And then something hard fell on his head before toppling to the floor. 

It was easy to tell by the cloud of white dust and the hard wooden surface that he had been unfortunate enough to fall victim to that object that had assaulted him was the chalkboard eraser. Likely, one of the five students in the room in front of him had propped it up on the door specifically in hopes of nailing him in the head with it. And he had been unlucky enough to play right into their hands. 

The chalk dust was making him cough and sneeze and he batted it away desperately with his hands, hacking and heaving for uncontaminated air. Why was it always him?

He backed himself into the hall once more to escape the noxious cloud of dust, slowly regaining the ability to breathe. As he worked on his breathing, he made his way to the bathroom, determined to get a drink to rinse down the chalk he had inadvertently swallowed. 

His glance at his reflection in the mirror made his eyes widen in horror. His normally black hair was a comical spectacle of white, which extended to his face and shoulders too. He grabbed a towel, wetted it, and began trying his best to wash away as much of the chalk as he could. 

It was apparent when he returned that he was late for class. All of the other students were settled in their seats looking like the definition of innocent. 

“Rock Lee. You’re late.” His teacher said crossly. “Just because you can’t do jutsu doesn’t mean that you should waste your classmates and my time by being tardy.”

“I am sorry, Sensei,” Lee said sincerely. “It will not happen again.”

“See that it doesn’t.”

Lee went to sit quietly at his desk, pulling a pencil and notebook out of the satchel he carried to school and taking notes as his Sensei resumed his lesson about jutsu techniques and battle strategies. 

After lunch, they began physical training. The prescription of the day was two hundred laps around the training field, which was far less than what Rock had set himself to do the day before. Cardio was an important part of any sort of jutsu. Breath control was linked with chakra control and so whether everyone wanted to or not, they were going to be running these laps every day until the Genin Exam. 

“Alright, you guys, keep it moving!” The teacher shouted. “You wanna run two hundred more laps?”

Lee sort of wished he could remember the man’s name but since he only ever received attention from the man when he was doing something wrong, he hadn’t really bothered to remember it. Besides, it was probably better for him to have memorized chakra control for jutsus than the teacher’s name. Still, four years of falling victim to this teacher’s scorn and he couldn’t conjure the name. 

He had chosen to pace himself today, jogging instead of pushing his limits. He wanted to be able to train after school and such a thing would not be possible if he pushed too hard. He was still sore from yesterday’s physical training. One of his classmates had apparently noticed his lagging in today’s exercise and was starting to giggle. 

“Dummy! Why bother?” He asked with a smirk. “You’ll never be a ninja! Let alone Hokage!” 

This comment only spurred a determined face from Lee, who pushed himself a little harder as if the effort alone would invalidate the other boy’s cruel words. All the other kids in the class chipped in their own giggles and his cheeks flushed just a little. This was a show and each of his peers was watching in hopes that he would stumble. 

“Will too!” He replied firmly, focusing his mind on his training. 

“There’s no way a kid who can’t even do ninjutsu could ever be a ninja!” Another boy sneered. 

“Yes, I can!” Lee said without skipping a beat. 

“Whatever!” The first boy piped up. “I don’t get why you’re even at this ninja academy when you can’t do ninjutsu or genjutsu and you’re even worse than average at taijutsu! It’s idiotic!” 

“Hey, you know what everyone here is calling you, don’t you?” The second boy asked with a big smirk. Rock quickly covered his ears but he was no match for the three kids that had stopped running in front of him, turned around and started shouting ‘Rock Bottom!’ in his face. 

The other kids took the opportunity to pause in their training to continue chanting the awful nickname at him. 

“Ahhh!” He shrieked in hopes of drowning out their jeers, starting to run from the schoolyard. 

“Hey, Lee, where you going?!” His teacher called after him, but Lee couldn’t listen right now. He needed an escape. “Get back in line!”

Lee did not stop running until he was outside of the Leaf Village walls and somewhere in the forest that surrounded the town. He rested his hands on his thighs and huffed for air. He ran faster than normal to get away from that mockery, and his muscles would probably scream at him tomorrow for the exertion. 

Once he had caught his breath, he looked around trying to figure out where exactly he was. It was a clearing of sorts, surrounded on all sides by a healthy amount of foliage and flora. In its center stood a tall and thick stump. This might have been a place that a lumberjack had been to recently, but to Lee, it seemed the ideal spot to continue training. 

He would train better without his classmates torturing him and it was probable that he would need every ounce of training he could muster to pass this year. 

He sat in front of the log and stared up at it for a while. It seemed wise to sit and plan the week so that he could make sure to be at his best on Friday. He would balance his training and his study as best he could, cycling through them to give his body a rest. 

Tuesday he would focus on ninjutsu. There would be no point in dedicating any time towards genjutsu since he would need someone to practice on so he’d get a zero for that section of the quiz. That left him with an eighty percent at the highest. 

Wednesday he would focus on training hard. He needed to be able to deliver solid punches and kicks, he had to be faster too. If he could hold his ground against the proctor in the taijutsu section, he that would guarantee him a twenty percent, not enough to pass, but a solid cushion for the other three sections. 

Thursday would be the day where he’d focus all of his attention on studying to give his body a rest. Two sections of the exam were written. There was the portion that would focus on chakra, its network, and how to use it best for each type of jutsu, and there was the portion that would go into battle strategy and a hefty amount of mathematics. 

Friday was the exam so there’d be no time to dedicate to study or training that day, but today he’d return to his apartment and study. He’d need to dedicate as much time as possible to each subject, after all, he’d need a sixty percent to pass and he wasn’t likely to get any points in the ninjutsu or genjutsu sections no matter how much he practiced which meant that sixty percent was also the best he could do. 

He walked home, mapping out his way back to his own private training grounds so he could return to it in the morning. He took care to look behind him regularly to find landmarks and unique foliage to mark his trail. 

He didn’t realize how late it was until he took a break from his books to stare out at the evening sky. There were so few lights on in the village. It had to be well after midnight. He rubbed his face, noticing that it had become partially numb from exhaustion and plucked an apple from his fruit bowl to eat before falling into bed. 

Lee rose with the sun, yawning widely as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Perhaps it was physical exertion from yesterday but he slept like the dead for the first time in weeks. The exam was always in the back of his mind and as it drew nearer good nights’ rests were hard to come by. Nerves were already making him anxious today and he’d barely been awake a minute. 

He had told himself that he was going to practice his ninjutsu today, but… it made more sense to practice at things he’d actually be able to get a score in. So he decided he would devote half the day to study and the other half to taijutsu. 

It was a warm morning even though the sun was just barely starting to peek over the horizon and light up the proud, carved faces of the four Hokage. It would be best to study for the first half, that way he could take a cold shower or shove his face in the fridge when he inevitably got too hot today. 

As it turned out, Lee was too stubborn to actually utilize the cold shower or fridge like he thought he would. He finally gave his eyes a rest at about five o’clock in the evening. They stung from staring at textbooks and notes for so long and his brain was swirling with an assortment of facts regarding jutsu, combat, history, and mathematics. He helped himself to a hearty serving of chicken curry and rice before making his way downstairs. 

Normally, he’d run to the training grounds, but he knew that he wouldn’t allow himself to rest until he was done training. He didn’t dawdle, but he also didn’t rush himself, wondering whether or not this would be one of his last evenings walking the streets as a common street urchin. Would he be a Shinobi when he woke up on Saturday?

He wouldn’t allow himself a simple regime. He needed to get strong and fast in three days. He stared down the tall stump in the middle of the clearing, brows culminating together in a determined glare. Five hundred kicks, he told himself.

Kick after kick after kick after kick, his feet were beginning to sting with pain, the log was hardly dented, the bark was stripped off at this point, and his muscles were screaming for him to stop.

“Three hundred ninety-four! Three hundred ninety-five! Three hundred ninety-six! Three hundred ninety-seven! Three hundred ninety-eight! Three hundred ninety-nine! Four hundred!” It was a rhythmic chant that set the pace of his training, fast and merciless. “If I cannot do five hundred kicks, then it’s two thousand squats!” he shouted to the log, though the thought of doing that many squats was already making his muscles ache. He’d do it though, he wanted to be the kind of person to keep his word, no matter what.

He wanted to be dependable, the kind of ninja that the Leaf would be able to rely on, even if they hated him for being a talentless street urchin with no parents and no jutsu. He would change them through hard work and determination and one day everyone would look to him with respect.

“Four hundred and four! Four hundred and five! Four hundred and six! Four hundred and seven! Four hundred and eight! Four hundred and nine! Four hundred and ten! Four hundred and eleven! Four hundred and twelve! Four hundred and thirteen! Four hundred and fourteen! Four hundred and fifteen!” his kicks were starting to lag just a bit. The effort to lift his leg to do these kicks seemed to increase with every movement. “Four hundred and sixteen! Four hundred and seventeen!” Four hundred and eighteen! Four hundred and nineteen!” 

“Four hundred... ninety-seven!” His chest was heaving, each syllable was a strain now. “Four… hundred… ninety… eight! Four… hun...dred… nine...ty… nine…”

_ THUMP! _

He woke on the ground, confused about how he had gotten there in the first place. He must’ve passed out. Panic seized him for a moment but when he looked at the sky and realized that the sun had barely moved at all, it vanished. He hadn’t wasted too much time then. 

He hadn’t made it to five hundred kicks, he realized, pushing himself off the ground. His hands collided in a clap and clasped together as he started his monumental number of squats he’d set for himself.

His legs still stung from the kicks and yet he couldn’t allow himself to back down. If he did, he couldn’t become a ninja. The first three hundred were easy, all things considered. At this point, his muscles had gone numb and it was only is lungs that were begging for him to stop. 

“If I cannot do a thousand squats, then its a thousand punches!” he shouted to the empty air. “Seven ninety-five! Seven ninety-six! Seven ninety-seven! Seven ninety-eight! Seven ninety-nine!” 

Nine hundred and eighty-two squats, that’s when he passed out again. The sun had set long before then and it was difficult to lift his eyelids when he came to. His legs were painful to move, but that was fine because he wouldn’t have to move them much for the thousand punches he had promised himself.

He didn’t know the night sky well enough to tell exactly how much time had passed since he started punching the stump, letting out a shout every time his fist connected with the wood. It was starting to really hurt his knuckles, small spots of blood dotted the dented wood as his skin was rubbed raw with the power behind his punches. He wouldn’t be able to do two thousand as he thought.

“If I can not do two thousand punches, then it’s two thousand jump ropes!” he told the stump. 

Pushups, pullups, situps, laps, jump ropes, lunges, burpees, they all blurred together until his body could take no more strain and he fell over, exhausted from the long day of training and study.

“Hnnn…” he groaned when he woke up. He felt warm, not just from the sting of his muscles. The sun was filtering through the leaves onto his face. _ Everything hurts. _

He carefully looked down at his body and found to his surprise that he was covered in a wool blanket. Where had it come from? He couldn’t be sure. He looked around, expecting to find whoever had left the blanket for him but there was no one except for a stray squirrel. 

He sat up, wincing. His throat felt sore and his nose was running. He had worked himself sick, like an idiot. He looked down at his hands and discovered that they had been carefully bandaged. Embarrassment covered his face. What sort of a ninja didn’t wake up when they were being bandaged?

He lay back down on the ground, staring up at the sky. It was past noon, which with how late he stayed up training, was fine. He could barely move, training was out of the question today. He wasn’t entirely sure if he’d even be able to make it back to his little apartment in Konoha to study. He’d probably get hungry, he was hungry right now, but he knew that if he tried to stand he’d fall over either from the fever he was sure he had or his muscles.

It was Wednesday. He’d use today to recover. 

“Well, aren’t you the picture of good health.” Lee heard someone say. His eyes widened with shock and he looked around, eyes finally settling on none other than the man that was the Third Hokage.

“Lord Third…” Lee stated, pushing himself to bow to the man.

“No need to strain yourself on my account. I’m just a retired old man, after all.” Sarutobi said with a smile. 

“So what brings you out here?” Lee asked curiously, he couldn’t imagine what the revered Third Hokage would be doing this far outside of Konoha.

“You, actually,” Sarutobi answered, smirking as the boy’s brows knit together in confusion.

“Me? You know who I am?” Rock asked, aghast.

“Rock Lee, right?” Lee nodded, raising his hand to his forehead to make sure his fever wasn’t so high he should worry. “Don’t worry. You’re cold is mostly over now. Lord Fourth had me come down here, apparently, he was getting pestered by a jonin who was worried about you.”

“Why would a jonin worry about me?” Rock asked, only more confused than ever.

“Who could say? You must be hungry, you haven’t eaten in four days.” 

“Four days?” Rock asked, trying to decipher what that meant. “Four days?!” Panic set in. “That means today is Saturday and I missed the Genin Exam!” he exclaimed, shooting off the ground onto his feet in a flurry of panic.

“Calm down, Lee. You don’t have anything to worry about.” Sarutobi tried to soothe, surprised by the amount of energy this starving, just-recovered boy had.

“What is that supposed to mean?!” he asked in alarm, staring at the once Hokage. His dream from earlier that week returned to the back of his mind. Perhaps Lord Third was here to tell him to quit trying to be a ninja.

“That jonin apparently hounded Lord Fourth to agree to let you take the exam individually too.” The Third said thoughtfully staring down Lee. He felt himself start to shrink under that incredible gaze but he shook himself out of it and stood tall.

“Really?! You are not messing with me, right?!” Lee questioned hopefully, puppy dog eyes appearing full force. Sarutobi let out a hearty laugh. 

“I can see why that jonin is attached to you.” he mused in his after chuckles. “No, I am not messing with you. But in exchange for taking the exam late, you have an uphill battle you must face. You will have a more difficult proctor than you would’ve had you been present when the other pupils were taking it.” 

“But, Lord Third, sir, I... “ _ barely had a chance before this _. He wanted to say but he paused, shaking his head. “Who is my proctor? I would like to get started as soon as possible.” 

“Wouldn’t you like to eat first? You’ve been sick the last four days and haven’t had anything, save the water I was able to give you while you were lucid.” Sarutobi asked with a quirked brow. “Come now, it’s not every day that someone gets to eat lunch with the Third Hokage.” 

As if to side with the old man, Lee’s stomach growled and he bashfully nodded his acceptance to the offer. 

Sarutobi pulled out a pair of bento boxes from behind him and offered one to Lee, popping his open and beginning to dig in.

“So, tell me about yourself, Lee,” he mumbled through a mouthful of rice. “What is your dream?”

“Well, um…” Rock looked down at his rice with a bright blush. “I want to be Hokage someday…” he admitted nervously. “But I do not have any ninjutsu or genjutsu, so if I were able to do it on taijutsu alone, I think that would be really amazing… I know it is not an easy path, and to do it with only one field of jutsu is unthinkable, but it is all I have. It is my only option.” 

“Try again,” Sarutobi said gravely. Lee forced the hurt from his eyes and he looked up at the Third Hokage.

“I-I am sorry, sir?” he asked, choking up just a little.

“It’s your dream, isn’t it?” Lee nodded hesitantly. “You should say it more fervently then. Say it with the confidence to shout it from the rooftops. Hokage is a very serious job, you cannot doubt yourself for even a second or it could put someone’s life in jeopardy. So try again, say it with the passion you feel for it!”

“Yes, sir!” Lee said, sitting straight. “My dream is to become Hokage without ninjutsu or genjutsu!” 

“Excellent job, Lee,” Sarutobi said with a chuckle. His determination was raw and natural, if not hidden behind a little nervousness. 

“Thank you for the meal, sir!” Lee said appreciatively, bowing respectfully. “I am sorry for cutting this short but I would really like to know the name of my proctor. I want to become a genin as soon as possible.”

“I am your proctor,” Sarutobi said gravely. Lee blinked up at one of the greatest shinobi that had ever come out of the Leaf. 

He was old, sure, but the boy was smart enough to know that age could hardly slow the skill of the man who was considered a god among men for his power. It didn’t seem fair, even if he was late. He had such a small chance of becoming a ninja without the Third Hokage being his proctor. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly through his teeth which seemed to amuse the old man.

“I see that you’re taking this seriously, good.” He nodded in some sort of acknowledgment of respect for his wise hesitation. 

“I cannot do ninjutsu or genjutsu,” Lee said, looking down at the ground in shame. Sarutobi barked a laugh at this and Lee had to swallow down his anger at the Third Hokage’s apparent mocking.

“That doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to become a shinobi.” he pointed out and Lee stared up at him in disbelief. “You’ve amassed a small following of people who believe in you and your determination. The Hokage wouldn’t have suggested this if he didn’t think you had it in you to pass this exam, even with me as your proctor.” 

“Really? I find that difficult to believe…” he confessed with a soft sigh. 

“Sometimes it’s hardest to see the ones that believe in you in a crowd of people who don’t. We all have our own paths to walk; they are never easy. Yours least of all.” Lord Third said sagely. Lee wasn’t quite sure what that was supposed to mean but he shrugged it off. “Give your muscles a little longer to rest. You can do the written portions first.” 

Rock set to work, writing down answers with a clipboard, pencil, and the exam that the Third Hokage had apparently had with him. The man had been prepared for the hotblooded boy to dive into the exam eagerly. 

The written portion was much harder than usual since his head was swimming with questions he wanted to ask the elder in front of him. _ Why did that jonin care about him? Who was the jonin, what was his name? Why did the Hokage believe he could do this? _He knew he wouldn’t get any answers, so he didn’t ask. He wondered if the jonin was that ninja he had met a week ago, the one with the bushy brows that harkened back thoughts of his own equally untamed eyebrows.

He handed the man the exam papers once he was done with and Sarutobi looked over them contemplatively, stroking his beard all the while. 

“Well? How did I do?” Lee asked nervously. 

“That’s not for me to tell you. You’ll find out on Monday, just like everyone else.” Lord Third replied and Lee’s shoulders sagged in disappointment.

“I was afraid you would say that…” That comment made the old, goat-like man chuckle.

“Don’t complain too much, you get one less day than the others to wait for the news.” Sarutobi reminded, standing and stretching after he stored the test papers in the bag. “I suppose we had best get on with the taijutsu portion then, don’t you? Now, I may look like an old man, but don’t hold back just because you’re worried about hurting me. I could take a million of your punches.” 

“A million?” Lee asked skeptically. “Ouch!” he rubbed his head where the Third Hokage had hit him squarely in punishment for the disrespect that naturally came with accusing him of exaggerating. 

“Whenever you’re ready, we’ll begin,” he said darkly. Lee swallowed thickly, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. What happened next, it was clear the old man was not expecting. Lee doubled over in an appreciative bow. 

“Thank you for agreeing to be my proctor, Lord Third. I know that you did not have to.” 

“It’s no trouble, Lee,” Sarutobi assured with a small smile. “Now, are you going to fight me or not?”

“Of course!” Lee promised with a grin, sticking out his thumb. “Now I am going to show you what I am capable of!” Sarutobi nodded and took up a defensive stance. 

Lee melted into a fighting position and launched himself towards the former Hokage with a determined expression. The older man blocked each of his punches effortlessly, but that was to be expected from such a great fighter. It was rare for any proctor to actually receive a punch, with such a vast difference in skill between jonin and a child trying to obtain the title of genin. 

This was anything but a normal taijutsu exam. Most exams didn’t surpass twenty minutes due to the need to test every student, but this fierce fight had been going on well past five hours. It was easy to tell by the grin on the old man’s face that he was enjoying this. It must’ve been liberating to spar with no real threat or consequences. Rock did not get the same luxury, which may have been the key factor as to why he was now fighting his way through a rebounding fever. 

Sarutobi had, on every occasion, blocked his punches, used the environment against him, and many times over, turned to offensive fighting, leaving Rock to defend himself against a fury of persistent and powerful strikes. He must have known that Lee’s fever was back full force, and yet it seemed like he was waiting for Lee to yield. 

The world was jostling back and forth like a rowboat on a turbulent ocean and yet Rock couldn’t give up. One shaky step after another, one weakened punch to the next, it had to be so clearly obvious what sort of state he was in, but he would refuse to give up. He’d fight until he could fight no more. He’d show everyone how wrong they were about him. He’d-

_ THUMP _

Lee woke up with a throbbing headache and a heavy groan. It was bright, why was it so bright? The sun had been setting when he was still in the middle of his exam. His eyes shot wide open when he realized he was in his apartment. He moved about the small room like a tornado, whirling about in hopes of finding any sign of the day or what time it was, or what had happened. 

He was more disoriented than he had been under the influence of the fever, but nothing could've prepared him for the Third Hokage coming out of his bathroom, casually drying his hands. 

"So you're awake." he mused and Rock Lee bowed deeply. 

"Yes, Lord Third," he confirmed and the old man chuckled deeply, stroking his short beard. "Um, why are we in my apartment, sir?"

"It rained all of yesterday," Sarutobi answered simply. "Which reminds me, you should be heading to school."

"School?" Rock asked in confusion.

"Yes, it's Monday morning. I'm sure you don't want to miss your exam results." With that, Lee rushed through putting on his usual clothes and didn’t bother to tame his messy hair. 

He burst through the doors to his classroom ten minutes later, huffing and panting to the chagrin of his teacher. It didn't occur to him until just now that he had left the Third Hokage standing in his empty apartment.

“Lee, you’re late…” his sensei growled. Lee doubles into a bow. 

“Yes, I am sorry, Sensei.” He murmured and his teacher sighed heavily. 

“Well, find your seat, I’m about to pass out exam results.”

“Yes, sir!” And with that, Rock went to his seat and tied back his messy hair. It took only a few minutes for the teacher to pass out all of the results but to Lee, it felt like an eternity.

Finally, he had the scroll in his hands but they were shaking with the terror of what score he might have on his exam. He held his breath and slowly began to unroll it with his eyes closed. Could he bear to look at the rejection? His heart was pounding and he could feel his eyes sting at the prospect of crying. He swallowed thickly and it felt like swallowing a boulder. He slowly lifted one eyelid and found to his delighted surprise a set of numbers he never thought he’d see. 

_ 60% - Passed _


	2. Meeting Guy Sensei

Rock Lee stood in front of his bathroom mirror, kunai in hand as he stared at what would most likely be the last time he saw himself with his braid again. It didn't feel real. His brand new headband with the Leaf Ninja symbol sat on the sink and he would glance down at it, pinching his arm on occasion to test reality. He was certain this was a dream, but he wouldn't wake up. Maybe it was some Genjutsu by one of the other students...

He had thought that once he had his headband in hand that he would rush home and cut his hair before anyone could take it away from him, but he never expected the hesitation he was feeling, the way his hand was shaking from both fear and joy. What if it had been a mistake and he'd come to school tomorrow, expecting to meet his new sensei, only to be told that he had failed the exam after all?

It was a silly, little fear, he knew, but that didn't make it go away. 

Hand still shaking, he set down his kunai and squared his shoulders to look directly at his reflection. Perhaps he was willing himself to believe that he had earned this and he hadn't somehow become a genin out of pity, he wasn't sure. His hand came up and he gave himself a hesitant smile and that thumbs-up gesture he'd learned from that odd jonin from before.

It seemed to be the extra push he needed because he suddenly felt brave enough to grab the kunai with one hand and his braid with the other and with one quick gesture, the familiar weight of his long, black tresses was gone, braid swinging limply in his grip. 

He set the kunai back on the sink and without even looking at his new reflection, he went to his room, laid the braid out on the floor like he had told himself he would always do and stared at the physical representation of all of the time it had taken him to become a shinobi. 

To be honest, he felt a little light headed and not just because of the loss of the weighty braid. Part of it was probably still remnants of his cold from last week, but mostly it was the overwhelming grief of how much time had past since he'd decided that he wanted to be a shinobi. Four years and he had only managed to become a genin. It should've been a happy occasion, but instead, the visual passage of time instilled trepidation. Was it realistic to believe that he would get much further than this on just Taijutsu?

He sighed heavily, picking up the braid and throwing it in his waste bin before climbing under the sheets on his bed and trying his best to fall asleep. 

Eventually, he did manage to sleep, but the sunlight seeping through his window was not a welcomed wake-up call with how long it had taken. He groaned into his pillow before pushing himself off of the mattress and padding about the apartment with the intention of doing his normal routine. He went to the bathroom to braid his hair on instinct only to realize that he didn't really have enough hair to braid anymore.

He stared at his reflection, unsure of what to do with his hair now. _Well, _he thought, _boys with short hair do not really do anything with it, do they?_ Most of the boys in his class had short hair and they usually let it just jut out in whatever position it pleased. He figured he'd at least give it a quick combing to get out any potential tangles before putting on his headband and staring at his reflection once again.

He really didn't look like he had yesterday... not even a little. Perhaps it was the haphazard hair or the Shinobi headband, but he felt like he looked a lot more mature, maybe even more confident. Confidence had always been a rare commodity for him before, and it still wasn't easy for him, but he hoped that would change. After all, he was officially becoming a ninja today.

There seemed to be an unfamiliar spring in his step as he made his way to the Ninja Academy. He knew the agenda well. Today, he would know which of his classmates were on his team and he would meet whichever jonin had been chosen to lead them. He really wasn't looking forward to having to spend more time with any of his classmates, since even the quiet ones avoided him. 

He entered the classroom, took his seat, and waited as seconds that seemed to last eternities passed before class officially started. He flexed and unflexed his hands, trying to distract himself. 

Finally the teacher cleared his throat and the room went silent. The teacher began writing on the board the names of his classmates and their new teachers as he announced them out loud. Rock's ears seemed to be ringing, why was his name not called yet? The number of students left in the room was dwindling into low single digits.

"Neji Hyūga, Tenten, and Rock Lee. You'll make up the last team graduating from the academy this year. Your team leader is Might Guy." the teacher said and Lee glanced nervously at his new teammates. "He's chosen your meeting spot to be the roof, so get moving."

His legs felt numb as he got to his feet, and he wasn't entirely sure he would be able to make it up those stairs without his knees giving out. He was excited, but also so very nervous. It was a relief to be assigned to a team, but how on Earth was he going to earn his teammates respect? This almost seemed a harder task than passing the genin exam. After all, a team that didn't work well together could hardly be called a team and would be doomed for failure.

Tenten was a cheerful enough girl. She had never participated in the jeers of the other children which gave Lee a little hope that he'd at least be able to get along with her, but Neji... was intense to say the least. Best grades in the class to counter Rock's near failing grades, and always a stormy expression on his face. Again, he had never made fun of Lee directly either, but Lee wasn't entirely certain that this team would work well together with such conflicting personalities.

Soon Rock found himself sitting on the bench that bordered the roof of the school with Neji and Tenten, awaiting their new sensei nervously. He didn't long to show up and Rock was immediately surprised to see that he knew who this man was. Before him stood a familiar man in a a forest green jumpsuit, orange legwarmers, a jonin vest, and a headband that marked him as a Shinobi of the Leaf tied neatly around his waist. It took almost every ounce of self-control Lee had to not let his jaw drop in disbelief.

Well, at least he now knew the name of the man who had fed and encouraged him last week. Might Guy. Learning from this man meant that he'd be able to find out who his other benefactor was and thank him as well. The man leaned coolly against the pillar that held up the shade above them and looked over each one of his students for a moment.

"As of today, you are all genin." he announced seriously. "So now, tell me, why are you genin? What are your goals? Hmm?"

"I'd rather not say." Neji said coldly, looking out over the roof and more pointedly anywhere that wasn't his team. Lee stared at the quiet boy for a moment in disbelief before raising his hand high.

"How about me, Sensei?" he suggested, figuring Neji would at least appreciate a reprieve from the attention. "I want to become Hokage someday, even if I do not have ninjutsu or genjutsu! I want to prove I can be a splendid ninja to the whole world!"

He wasn't familiar with the look that his teacher was now giving him. There was a small smile on his face, but it wasn't amused, so what was it? He didn't have time to think on it when he heard a small chuckle from the boy sitting next to him.

"What is it?!" Lee demanded, standing and turning to fully face the long haired boy with the most unsettling purple eyes. "What is so funny? You think I am joking? I mean it! I will be Hokage just by using Taijutsu and nothing else!"

There was something about this moment, something about saying it with the Shinobi of the Leaf headband proudly displayed on his his forehead that made the statement so much more real. It was a monumental task, he knew, one that most would consider impossible, but he needed to be able to try. He was a genin now, and once upon a time not too long ago, Lee had been wondering if he had any chance of achieving that. He wasn't going to waste anymore time wondering whether something could actually be done. No, now he would just try his best to do it.

"You nitwit." Neji replied coldly, a cruel smirk on his face. "Without Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, you can hardly call yourself a ninja, can you? Do you remember when they told you were the first person to graduate who could only use Taijutsu? They weren't saying that because it was impressive. They only meant that it was unusual."

Lee swallowed the lump he felt in his throat, staring at Neji in disbelief. Neji had never openly mocked him before, why was he starting now? What was worse was that Lee didn't really have anything to say that could combat Neji's awful words. He felt his shoulders sag in disappointment. 

"Listen up!" Guy said behind him, waving a finger in a reproachful manner, but the expression on his face hadn't changed at all since Rock Lee first stated his dream. "If you've got the passion, that isn't necessarily the case."

Again, his new sensei made that thumb gesture he'd been imitating for the last week and Lee found himself staring at the man once again in wonder. It was so unfamiliar to be encouraged, and yet here Guy was, cheering him on effortlessly while instilling what was probably the first of many lessons into his new pupils. 

"With the right amount of passion and some healthy competition to spur each other on, you'll all be great ninja." Guy reassured, donning a confident smile. Lee felt himself start to smile too. "You'll still have to work your butts off, though."

He let out another hearty laugh and Lee could only stand and stare at the man in awe. He knew that to everybody else, the man before him was probably an odd one, but to him, his new sensei was an inspiration. With Might Guy as his sensei, maybe he could truly take every lesson to heart and achieve his dreams someday. 

"What about you, Tenten?" Lee asked, looking over at the girl who had been quiet this whole time. "What is your dream?"

"Me?" She asked before putting a hand to her chin in thought. "I'd never really thought about it before but... I suppose that I'd really be interested in specializing in weapons to learn as much about them as I can, that way, maybe I can make a few of my own someday." she confessed with a smile. 

"I know you didn't want to share your goals with us, Neji, and I can respect that, but I think for our first lesson, I want to teach you about the fires of rivalry." Guy sensei said decisively. "As I said earlier, healthy competition can spur you on to help you better achieve your goals. How about I give you a demonstration with my own rival? It's about time for me to meet up with him today anyways. Follow me!"

It seemed like Neji was doing his best to hold back a sigh as they all got up and followed their sensei out of the Academy. Guy led them to what seemed to them to be another roof in the Konoha, the same as any other. It wasn't unusual for shinobi to get around via rooftops, but even to Lee, it seemed unlikely that they would choose a random roof to meet on.

"Alright, you three, go wait over there." Guy instructed, pointing at a roof a level higher than the one they were on. "My rival will be here shortly, and you'll have the best seats in the house to watch our friendly, youthful competition!"

Twenty minutes had gone by and Neji was obviously growing impatient while Tenten and Lee quietly chatted about their interests. It seemed like their sensei might have a different definition of the word 'shortly' when applied to the concept of time. Each minute that passed seemed only to make Neji fume more and more, but finally, the moment they had been anticipating arrived. 

Someone else was walking across the roof their teacher was on, though he didn't seem to be paying attention in the slightest and with his current trajectory, it appeared very likely the man would walk straight into Guy sensei. The source of his attention appeared to be a small book with an orange cover. Even from a distance, Lee could see a label that very strongly suggested that this was not a book for anyone under eighteen. Only when he was a few feet away from Guy, did he stop walking, not bothering to glance up from the pages of his book.

"Kakashi! Late again!" Guy announced firmly, hands on his hips. "By seventeen minutes and thirty-two seconds."

"How 'bout we skip this today?" the Kakashi replied indifferently.

"We've tied each other at forty-eight wins. Today's face off will put one of us in the lead." Guy said, unphased by his rival's response.

The man let out a very exasperated sigh and though his face was mostly covered with a mask, he seemed to look genuinely exhausted from the prospect of just participating in whatever Guy sensei had cooked up for them. 

"You're not going to take 'no' for an answer, are you?" He asked, finally looking up from the pages of his book. "Alrighty then. It's my turn to name the challenge, right?" 

Guy's undying enthusiasm only seemed to fire up even more as he switched between a few dozen different fighting stances.

"So what will it be?" he questioned excitedly. "A round of Taijutsu? A hundred meter dash? Holding our breath? Or an eating contest maybe?"

"Oh, boy..." Guy's rival seemed to only be more worn out with each one of Guy's suggestions. "Okay, I got one."

The three students leaned towards the edge of the roof in anticipation for what the man was going to say. It wasn't every day that they got to see two jonin face off and even if it were just a friendly bout, it would set the bar for what they would each have to accomplish to reach the same rank as the men before them.

"Yeah? Lay it on me!" Guy exclaimed with a bright grin.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors." the man answered, lifting his fist up to further cement the idea. 

Lee felt his jaw drop and a quick glance to his other teammates showed they were having just as difficult a team believing this scenario was happening either. Neji looked like he was about to explode again, but he was keeping quiet in order to watch how this played out.

"Are you nuts?!" Guy sensei asked, obviously as put off as his students. "That's what you choose?!"

"You know it's not all about skill..." Kakashi reasoned, pocketing his book for now. "Sometimes you need a little luck. It will be a good way to test your powers of observation."

"I... guess you're right." Guy agreed, though he still looked disappointed at the simplicity of the challenge laid before him. 

"I don't know..." Neji mused, eyebrow quirked. "I think Kakashi's just messing with him so he doesn't have to break a sweat."

"Yeah, looks like." Tenten agreed. It was easy to tell by her expression that she was wondering if maybe they had been loaded with the worst of the teachers available this year.

"Alright, you're on!" Guy finally agreed. "And I aim to win! If I lose, I'll take five hundred laps around the Leaf Village, on my hands, too!"

Their teacher was unpredictable, Lee decided, shocked at the prospect of such a punishment for something as simple as losing a round of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

"There you go again..." Kakashi's shoulders sank.

"That's a promise!" Guy assured, his thumb going up in his usual salute. 

"What on earth is he thinking?" Neji wondered in disbelief. "He can't do that. He acts like a seven year old."

"You are right." Lee agreed, unable to take his eyes off the two men on the roof below them. "That is impossible. Even for Guy Sensei." 

The man had to be strong, he was a jonin, after all. But Lee doubted that even a Hokage could manage such a feat. Who had the time, let alone the physical strength, to walk around the circumference of Konoha five hundred times over on their hands, no less?

"'Reckless' is what I'd call it." Neji replied, not taking his eyes off the spectacle below them. 

Kakashi and Guy moved into battle stances as if what they were about to do was anything other than something that did not require such over-the-top antics. 

"ROCK! PAPER! SCISSORS!" the two cried out in unison, hands effortlessly moving to whichever of the three hand gestures they thought would win.

Guy stood his with hand wide open; Kakashi, with two fingers spread out and the rest tucked away. Paper verse Scissors, the winner obvious. Kakashi stood victorious over Guy with forty-nine wins. 

Guy looked at his hand for a moment, clearly a little irritated with the loss as his fingers morphed into a fist.

"Five hundred! As promised!" he assured, the familiar thumb shooting upwards towards the sky.

Guy Sensei was nothing if not consistent, Lee decided. He couldn't imagine that Guy Sensei would actually go through with it. He'd probably do a couple laps at most and call it a day, that was Neji and Tenten's hypothesis. It made sense, after all, he still had three students to look after.

They watched as their teacher made his way down to the streets below wordlessly and switched from standing right-side-up to standing on his hands. 

It hadn't taken long at all for Tenten and Neji to tire of Guy's shenanigans. After about an hour of waiting for their teacher to give up on his outrageous promise, they both went home. Lee couldn't though, he had thought about it, of course, but no matter how long he stared at his sensei, trying to puzzle through what would drive a man to even go this far, he couldn't understand him.

The people of Konoha were chuckling at the spectacle, interested enough that for once, Lee was completely forgotten in the crowd. It was obvious by a small trail of sweat droplets on the ground that the exertion of it was hot and exhausting, but still Guy persisted and Lee couldn't fathom why.

Lee would give just about anything to be inside his teacher's head right now so that he could understand what made him so different from other adults. Was he naively unaware of it? No, that couldn't be it. Did that mean that he did know, and he just didn't care?

Soon the entire day had gone by, the sun had long since set, and even the crickets were starting to settle in for the night, and Lee had been unable to stop watching the man go at lap after lap on his hands, now covered in a thick layer of caking dirt. 

Every once in a while, Guy would mutter to himself some encouragement, usually: 'this is nothing'. A couple hundred laps in, and the man hadn't taken a single break, not even once. He had to be hungry and tired, and yet he persisted even though no one was expecting him to.

Rock had had enough. It was time to make him stop so that he would take care of himself. He stood in his teacher's path and the grown man looked up at him in surprise.

"Lee, what are you doing out here?" he asked in a tired voice, stopping his trajectory but remaining on his hands. "And so late."

"What about you?" Lee countered, unable to ignore the way Guy's muscles would fight against the strain of the exercise. "It is not like Kakashi Sensei is out here to see this. And neither is anyone else for that matter."

"When a man struts around like a peacock, acting like Mr. Big-stuff, he should at least keep his promises, even if it kills him." Guy reasoned. Now that he had slowed, sweat was starting to pour down his face.

Lee's brows knit together in confusion as he thought about what his teacher had said. Now that he thought about it, Guy had used the word 'promise' earlier that day when making what had seemed like such a boisterous claim. But no matter how long Lee thought about it, it just got sillier and sillier, to the point where he was now letting out a small, good-natured chortle. 

"What is it?" Guy asked seriously.

"Why do you do this?" Lee questioned sincerely. "From how Kakashi Sensei reacted, it seems like every time you start something, you make up these crazy rules!"

Guy shifted to his feet, giving his arms a break for the first time in what had to be nearing twelve hours, giving a chuckle of his own.

"Now that's an excellent question, Lee." the teacher commended with a nod of approval. "I've got to hand it to you, son, you always get right to the point. Okay, I'll tell you, but remember: this is just between you and me." That statement only served to puzzle Lee even more.

"Why? What is it?" he asked, once again bewildered by the man before him. 

"Alright, the trick is: 'A ninja's self-rule is the key!" Guy responded, but Lee felt like that didn't actually answer any of his questions. Why were adults always so very confusing? "The key to victory!"

"S-Self-rule?" Lee repeated carefully, hoping that his master would elaborate on just what that meant to him. 

"Listen, Lee," Guy started with a small smirk, "the point of all these rules is to stack the deck up against yourself each and every time you set your sights on a new objective. It's about giving yourself an obstacle. Instead of seeing it as five hundred laps of punishment for losing, I see it as the path of beating Kakashi the next time. By leaping that hurdle, it'll be that much easier to achieve my next goal."

"Oh, I see." Lee murmured. He had pulled out a notepad an a pencil he had packed with him earlier in the day and was diligently writing down each and every one of Guy's words. And his words were finally starting to make sense to him.

"Take today," Guy continued, looking rather pleased to have a student taking notes on what he was saying. "By chaining myself to those five hundred laps, I forced myself to take something as trivial as a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with an almost deadly seriousness. That's the first tenet. And besides, even if you lose, I still have put in several hundred laps around the village. If you want to toughen up, it's the ultimate two-step program."

"That is brilliant!" Rock exclaimed, excited by the prospect of what such a self-rule would do for him. Surely, becoming Hokage would only be an easier path if he made his own, more difficult obstacles to overcome. It would still not be an easy path, but now he almost didn't want it to be. 

"Alright, I still have a little more left..." Guy stated, returning to his hands. "Upsy-daisy!"

"I am coming too!" Lee decided, moving to stand in line with his teacher. Guy's eyebrow quirked upwards in curiosity. "I have my own rule to follow."

"Hey, careful!" Guy instructed, still a little bewildered when Lee got on his hands as well. "Don't push yourself, Lee."

"If I cannot keep up with you, Guy Sensei, that means I just have to push myself even harder!" Lee determined with a sweet smile. Guy only blinked in confusion. "I want to be like you, sensei! And as long as I keep at it, I am sure to be Hokage someday. That is a promise!"

And with that, Lee turned his attention towards the path ahead of him, beginning the long trek on his hands. Sure, he wouldn't be doing five hundred laps like his teacher, but his body wasn't exactly trained for this kind of physical exertion and his shoulders would probably hate him for it in the morning, but he didn't care. Today had been the happiest day of his life.

"Right!" Guy agreed, following after his student with a smile. "Well, in that case I'm adding a new rule: if you aren't able to keep up with me for the rest of my laps around the village, I'll put every last ounce of my being into training you. If I train you with all my soul, there's no question you'll become Hokage. That's a promise!"

Guy Sensei had been right about the remainder of the laps being too much for Lee to be able to tackle with his inexperience, but he approached it with gusto. When he needed a break, Guy encouraged him to do the rest of a lap on foot, telling him that he was keep track of how many laps Lee could do and that they'd only get better and stronger tomorrow.

When the laps were done and Lee fell into his bed, he took one glance up at the ceiling with an exhausted but happy smile on his face. Somebody believed in him and his dream for the first time in his life, and he couldn't be happier.


End file.
